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How much investment would it take to set up a small leaged crystal manufacturing and casting facility?

Asked by ETpro (34605points) November 1st, 2011

Crystal glass is beautiful and far more workable than ordinary soda/lime glass. It’s made by replacing the ordinary lime that provides calcium in glass with lead oxide. That dramatically increases the refractive index of the glass, and also lowers its melting and workable temperatures and vastly lowers its viscosity at workable temperatures, making it easy to get the air bubbles out of the glass before cooling.

To make faceted balls, dangles and such, I would need to mold it then mechanically polish the facets with a diamond wheel. What would the whole operation; furnaces, carriers, molds, polishing and cutting machines; cost if approached on a very small scale.

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